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"The Owls Are Not What They Seem" A Twin Peaks Rewatch with the Theory in Mind: Episode 23 "The Condemned Woman"
The theory: Twin Peaks is the dream of William "Billy" Hastings, a serial killer. The result of his mother's abuse, at the hands of her father, Billy was abused by her in turn, keeping the cycle going. Playing with fire, as abused/neglected/antisocial children are prone to, he accidentally burned down the motel where he lived with his mother and grandfather/father, killing them. He was sent to live with his grandmother/great-grandmother, until she died too. Billy then went to live with his strict, born again uncle. In high school, Billy became obsessed with a schoolmate, the American Girl. He murdered her, the first in a string of victims, all similar in the way that they reminded him of his mother. To deal with his past and what he'd become, he constructed the world of Twin Peaks, allowing him to also "protect" and honor his mother, the woman he both loved and feared. Inside of the dream, Billy's family was represented by both the Hornes and the Lodge Spirits, while Billy's main avatar was our hero Dale Cooper. Inside of his dream, Billy sought to project his tragedy and sins onto his victim's family instead, which worked for a while. However, if the OG is a representation of how Billy got away with murder, the Return is how he was eventually discovered by the mother of his first victim, an act precipitated by his involvement with Betty, his final victim.
A longer essay on the theory: https://armsholdair.dreamwidth.org/7192.html
WARNING: A knowledge of the whole Twin Peaks series is needed for this, fittingly from A to Z and Z back to A.
The Log Lady intro circles around the fate of Josie obviously, stating, "A hotel. A nightstand. A drawer pull on the drawer. A drawer pull of a nightstand in the room of a hotel. What could possibly be happening on or in this drawer pull? " And yet her words also tantalizingly can apply to this theory, for the fact that she's emphasizing that a hotel is playing a role in the situation, and this hotel happens to belong to the Hornes. Afterall, we theorize that Billy lived in a motel with his mother and grandfather/father and they were Audrey and Ben, or some version of them.
Margaret points out the overabundance of drawer pulls in the world. She asks what a drawer pull is. Well, technically it is something that opens a drawer of a cabinet, nightstand etc...Is she pointing out it can be opened then, or hide something? Cole, episodes ago, stated about people whom make a living of going through other people's drawers, as in snooping.
The Log Lady asks, "This drawer pull - why is it featured so prominently in a life or in a death of one woman who was caught in a web of power? Can a victim of power end, in any way, connected to a drawer pull? How can this be?"
The camera shifts to a closeup of Margaret as she asks that. Josie was used by both Thomas and Andrew, friends whom also had a rivalry going and wished to take the other down, but Thomas' feeling were more emphasized as being spurred on by love and possession of Josie. Secrets might have played a role somehow.
We have a connection that will come later too, which can equate to Andrew and Thomas, but we'll get into that more then.
What the Log Lady doesn't outright mention is how the pull is made of wood, possibly trees from Ghostwood. Those woods and the trees therein maybe linked to the abuse of Audrey, as we have already suggested.
- The episode begins with the rest of Windom's tape playing as the camera pans over certain items on Harry S Truman's desk. That it starts with the paperweight of an owl, encased in a glass dome, is interesting, especially when it also focuses on the chess board and Caroline's mask. We're trying to claim that this is all about the Hornes, owls being code for them, and the last half of the original series deals with Billy's battle against himself and his dark nature. We also have been speculating that Caroline is another form/mask/decoy Billy created for his mother. So looking at this sequence, we can say that on the one end, the owl in the dome, represents Audrey, a more accurate portrait of his mother, being protected inside of his fantasy so she won't end up like the Caroline version of her whom died inside of it to, and is represented at the other end. Billy wants his mother to live. In between sits the chessboard which is the war, to fight against anything happening to her, and that includes by his own hand, Dale's.
- Windom has noticed that Dale's heart isn't in it, his thoughts elsewhere. Where we wonder? Josie? Or perhaps is it Audrey herself? He's denied her and distanced himself, but is the secret part of himself wanting her, just as Mr. C betrays? Remember Dale's repressed urges, his secret self's first action practically is to go pay Audrey Horne a visit, before he eventually leaves Twin Peaks.
- Cooper says that if Windom wanted him dead, he already would be. Why doesn't he? Or is that just part of Billy's "story" and downfall, his dark side leading up for when he can swap father Windom and Goody Dale for BOB and Mr. C?
- Cooper says to get Pete on the horn. Hmmm...we forgot calling someone could be referenced as such, along with giving them a ring...Neat to be able to connect all of those and then think of moments like when Mr. C's conversation with Phillip Jeffries about Judy gets interrupted by a "horn".
- Harry compliments Caroline and Cooper says she was the love of his life...so, once again, why didn't he save HER and not Laura??? Why the obsession with Laura, or was that because HE killed her and was about to get arrested/punished for it? That's what The Return centers around, what he/Billy is truly guilty of and where it started: the night Laura died, not the night in Pittsburgh.
- Andrew and Catherine are now in charge of Ghostwood. Billy has used his "dream" to rip it away from his father/grandfather and give it away to a brother and sister instead.
- Josie walks in through the door carrying an armful of twigs. That's technically wood. We've linked Ghostwood to Audrey's abuse and Josie is destined to become trapped in a wooden drawer pull after she's frightened to death. Now, in foreshadowing, she falls to the floor after seeing Andrew alive and "home".
- The forces that be still are circling around Josie, both Hank threatening to tell everyone she killed Andrew and Albert telling Cooper that Josie was definitely the one who shot him.
- Audrey is dipping her feet into different jobs at the Great Northern, to help her learn the business. Today she is obviously ruffling the concierge, Randy's, feather's; he thinks she's after his job. He can't wait to see her tackle housekeeping.
That was what Nicky's mother was, at the actual Great Northern too.
Becoming a maid in her own house, was what also happened to Josie.
- Randy gives Audrey Windom's letter, saying it arrived that morning, but didn't it get there last night? Anyway, she's got it now.
- Okay, so now in walks a certain character, tall, dark, handsome, whom walks up to Audrey as she's sitting at the concierge desk, fooling around with her name tag.
He's just checked into room 215.
He realizes Audrey is a Horne, and seems surprised. He requests her help in getting his heavy equipment to the hotel, there having not been enough room in the van. She asks what flight he was on, he replies his own and she seems put off, thinking he thinks he's rich and powerful.
As he's set to leave, he says he has a photograph of her in certain attire. Audrey counters she doesn't wear it. He says she did then and it was right there in the Great Northern dining room (food/appetite appearing again, and in a disturbing way when we learn how old Audrey was). If he closes his eyes, he can see it: "Little Audrey Horne as Heidi."
Hmm...a story about a little girl who lives in the mountains? The little girl who lived down the lane in Twin Peaks.
Anyway, he turns to walk away and Audrey realizes he's talking about an event from when she was 10, but he's gone by then.
A lot to unpack here, and it's all kind of simple and also unsettling and important at once.
This guy...he's just kind of plopped down. That's in effect what he was because he's Audrey's new love interest. That could help explain things, the writers hastily coming up with a replacement for Cooper...
But there's something not right.
He's staying in room 215. That's exactly a 100 off from Cooper's room itself. Then Audrey says the photograph he has of her was from when she was 10. 100 and 10 are both numbers of completion as Gordon Cole would say in The Return.
And about that last bit of having a photo of a 10 year old...not only is that creepy but it's outright hinting he doesn't care about her age, as opposed to Cooper.
His outfit isn't Coop's dark suit either, he's unabashedly western...and yet, we've already speculated that Cooper/Billy likes cowboys, if Harry as his idealized father, a statue Dougie/Coop stares at and Sonny Jim's bedroom are any indication. Plus, there will be a scene later on, when this cowboy and Cooper actually meet one another in front of a blazing fire in the Hornes' hotel, where Dale is seen drinking from a very odd but relevant measuring cup featuring a cowboy.
We are claiming right now that THIS character isn't just the writers replacement for Dale Cooper he IS Billy's replacement for him too. Well, not so much a replacement, but a substitute.
A wish from Cooper, whom is really still just Billy, himself.
Why would Coop need an alternative self, besides just for his "rules"?
Well. What happens next helps to elaborate on this.
- Audrey opens Windom's letter to find one third of the letter that Earle had Leo write. It appears to be a poem, and comes with a more legible and whole note "Save the one you love. Please attend gathering of angels
tonight at the Road House, 9:30."
This...this is why a substitute lover has been dropped infront of Audrey Horne. Windom Earle has finally reached out and touched Audrey, placing her existence within the dream in jeopardy, something neither Cooper, nor his true self Billy, can stand.
As the letter says...
"Save the one you love."
John "Jack" Justice Wheeler is one of the ways for Billy to do that.
Remember when Windom told Dale that it was his move? Well this IS his next move.
If Dale could save any one pawn or Queen it would be his Audrey.
Think of the owl kept safe in its dome. Think later too, of Audrey, apparently kept safe in her world with Charlie, which she soon feels trapped inside.
- "Young" Nadine breaks up with Ed to be with the much younger Mike, telling Ed they have to call a spade a spade.
Mr. C had the symbol, possibly for Judy, written on a scratched Ace of Spades card.
- Cooper talks with Josie, imploring him to tell him about Seattle and Jonathan. He gives her the ultimatum to be at the Station by 9 to confess everything or he will find her.
9 is 30 minutes before the gathering of angels.
To be honest, we're still examining this whole Cooper and Josie dynamic in relation to Billy's later relationship with Betty. And we still recall how Dale revealed an instant attraction to Josie when he asked Harry "Who's the babe?" which sounded like a 16 year old boy's remark, which Billy would have been at that time. Josie, like Audrey, is opposite to the whole Caroline, Laura and Annie thing, as well as Diane and Janey-E later. But even Dougie, when he was cheating, chose the dark Jade as his secret lover. And we still believe the dark beauty Ronette was Billy's American Girl.
But who is Josie? Just another aspect to help explore his mother? Betty's sister? Someone else Billy was attracted to, or whom threatened him, like Betty? We honestly don't know.
- Catherine, whom had been listening in, asks if Cooper had been paying a social call (more insinuation of Billy being attracted to whomever Josie represents to him?). She frightens Josie with talk about Eckhardt, and what he will do once he knows Andrew is alive. Josie believes he will kill her. Catherine gets a book from off the shelf, leaving Josie to gratefully find a gun waiting there for her.
So Catherine wants Josie to kill Eckhardt and then go to jail? The book she will be seen reading later is Great Expectations. That was also the same book Dale had on his nightstand in the first season. Any relation to Josie turning into a drawer pull on a nightstand?
All that seems clear, at this stage, is that Billy is painting one woman's terror of one man, which could represent his mother's fear of their father.
- Ben, whom is apparently trying to be healthier in body and spirit, attends to a group gathered in his office consisting of Audrey, Jerry and Bobby, whom he insists stay. He says, "You know, board meetings are usually nothing more than a gathering of self-minded individuals, each more intent than the other on financial gain." Is that what the Convenience Store meeting is essentially in FWWM? Is that what the unhealthy Ben's meetings were before Billy has tried to redeem/clean him inside his fantasy?
Is Ben making himself "better" echoing Cooper's own strict adherence to his own oaths.
- There's a fire burning in Ben's office.
- The Cooper substitute comes in, and Ben obviously knows and likes him, introducing him to everyone: John Justice Wheeler. He used to be in construction, came up the hard way. Ben believed in the local boy "Jack" and gave him a pittance, which he built into an empire. Audrey isn't so impressed, or doesn't let herself appear to be. Meanwhile, Jack says Ben is testing his well-worn modesty.
We find out more about Jack and it's all a little too convenient and strange. First the guys name. He shares the name of Ben's son and Audrey's brother: John. But his nickname is Jack, as in the name of the brothel Ben used to own and Audrey was just rescued from by Cooper. Then we have Justice thrown in, which is just/fair behavior and treatment. Plus you end ir all off with Wheeler, which invokes the whole circle motif again.
We think that this is Billy's way of trying to enact some justice. Audrey, he believes, should be kept away from the whole Windom danger, plus she needs someone whom can treat her a little better than the damaged, too perfect, Cooper was able to, not to mention the possibility that Billy always intended for his main avatar not to become sexual with his mother inside of the dreamworld, but trying to establish "healthy" boundaries to fix things he was ashamed about.
Plus, this guy, this "Jack" also functions as possibly the father Billy had once believed or fantasized he had. When The Return aired, it was a major debate amongst fans whether Mr. C or Jack was the father of Richard. Both seemed logical, especially given how Audrey had definitely slept with Jack before he left town. That made him a very large candidate. But that was partially what Billy needed as well. He wanted to think someone like Jack Wheeler was his father, because that was another function this new character provided in his dreamscape: it could help further deviate from his accepting that his own grandfather was actually his father.
Think of Jack Rabbit's palace, where Bobby and his own father used to play and make believe...But also think about how there's a large statue of a Jack Rabbit in Odessa Texas named "Jack BEN Rabbit" after its founder John BEN Sheppard, because deep down, that fact can't be escaped, echoed in the fact that this man is someone Ben fashioned in his partial likeness, or how his name is Wheeler, as in cycle. Billy's true parentage haunts his dreamworld, intruding even where it isn't wanted.
Billy himself intrudes in the "construct" of Jack, as indicated by his name also being John, Audrey's brother, just as Billy and his mother were brother and sister, and how Jack is like the son Ben Horne wished Johnny had been. Inside of Billy's dream, maybe he grants his family a few dreams each for themselves.
- Looking at the word Horne, besides the links to owls, bucks and roses, it can also look like "Home" if you place the r and n closely together.
- This meeting seems to be about getting Ghostwood back or undermining Catherine's plans for it.
- Ben states that the greatest gift a human being can give to another is the future...
"Through the darkness of future past, the Magician longs to see..."
Billy wishes his father/grandfather had given him a better future.
- Ben hopes to save the Pine Weasel, which is being threatened by the Packard plans for Ghostwood development. He seems to want to save the environment, but Jerry speculates "So we block Catherine's development until the wheel turns and we get another shot. That's brilliant, Ben. That's brilliant."
Basically, Jerry's assessment is true when we discover, in The Return, that that was just what Ben did. It's kind of similar to how Jerry knew that Ben's claim that he wouldn't take advantage of Beverly was just a lie to himself. Jerry seems to see right through his brother, making their connection/similarities to MIKE and BOB even more pronounced.
Then we have the animal that Ben is trying to save, having been once considered a sexually deviant, phallic like pet, sometimes used in old paintings for dubious meanings...this particular weasel he is now linking to Ghostwood, which we disturbingly link to his abuse of his daughter.
So, it appears, no matter how Billy might be trying to clear and redeem his father, he will never be able to, for the man longs to be his true self, even while a different narrative is being forced on him.
- Ben then makes a joke about running for Senate next. We have that Lynch and Frost initially started as a partnership in planning some adaption of Marilyn Monroe's life. Lynch infact says Laura was all about Marilyn and so was Mulholland Drive. And yet Sherilyn Fenn looks more like Munroe than Sheryl Lee does and Mulholland Drive was meant to be about Audrey. Before Dale met Audrey, he was even wondering about the Kennedys role in Marilyn's death. Now we have Ben joking about running for Senate, just like the Kennedy brothers. We state it again: This whole thing is about the Hornes.
- Windom leaves his letter for Shelly at the Double R, while Norma talks to her sister on the phone. Now, we'll get into this sister when she's formally introduced, but what we need to pay attention about her now is how Norma viewed her as being "from another place and time" and how she just left the convent. We should also note how she's being mentioned on the same episode where Jack first appeared.
Balance.
Symmetry.
- Shelly gets the letter and reads about saving the one she loves and that she should be at the Roadhouse at 9:30. Norma wisely thinks it's dangerous.
- Windom plays teacher to Leo in the wilderness, as he has Leo working on whittling wood for arrows. One of the lessons Windom says is that nature is cruel. We can perhaps tie this to the "nature" of Billy's own father, or the unnatural relationships that perpetuated his family, and we might then also link this to Ghostwood again, and its real meaning.
- Norma asks Hank for a divorce but the man indicates he will only give it to her if she gives him an alibi for the attempt on Leo's life. It is clearly portrayed how desperate Hank is to stay out of prison, mirroring Josie's own fears, believing it will end their lives. This is probably Billy's own feelings on the subject, more than anything. He fears going to jail partly because then Mr. C can't come out to play. Billy is becoming a slave to his murderous urges and they soon will become the only thing that drives him. He also fears discovery because then they will delve into his past and everyone, including himself, will be forced to learn about his history.
- At the station, Pete gives Dale his next move, claiming it will be 5 or 6 moves before Windom can take another piece from the board. Harry fears Earle will just kill out of frustration, Cooper says Windom holds a perverse sense of honor about these things.
- Albert comes bearing more nails for Josie's coffin, this time that there was gun powder on her gloves that matched the shootings of Coop and Jonathan and that people ID'd her exiting Jonathan's car. So if we're looking for anything at all that is similar from Josie to Betty, we have that Josie killed Jonathan in a car and Billy drove Betty home in his, before her own exploded afterwards, but we suspect Hastings still just might have tried to kill her in his own car. We know it's stupid...but we have to list this sort of thing.
- A shot of Josie preparing to meet Eckhardt is staged similar to Josie's first scene from the pilot. Only the dogs from the lamp are now separated...kind of like Audrey and Cooper, an odd observation to make, perhaps, but one we still make.
Come to think of it, Josie looking in the mirror can be connected to Audrey looking in the mirror. Josie also did what many people with personality disorders do: mirror people back at themselves, so they see what they want to, which is basically themselves. Coop/Dougie survives mainly by doing this, and we suspect it showed how Billy survived detection as a monster from his ability of mirroring human behavior back at people.
This can provide one interesting thread between Josie and Betty. We suspect tulpas represent people that Billy believed put on a false self for others. That Diane, whom we believe is one of the dreamworld substitutes for Betty, had one shows that Billy saw Betty as false somehow. This can tie into the thread, as well, of someone trying to spy on someone to find out what they are hiding, or, in other words, going through their drawers. Josie and Betty are linked by this. But does that still indicate that Josie was someone whom was getting to close to finding out what Billy was?
- Andrew and Josie have a discussion where it is obvious Josie wants his help. He makes the statement that maybe she and Eckhardt were meant to be together all along, and that maybe Eckhardt can get her out of the country.
It is a very deceptively cruel conversation. Andrew feigns kindness and yet he barely means any of it.
Still confused over the whole triangle to be honest. We guess Josie was working for Eckhardt because she was terrified of him? We can still compare the Eckhardt/Josie dynamic to the one Billy's mother had with their father. In her mind, she was a prisoner in the same way that Billy fears becoming one.
- Donna and James have a picnic. Donna isn't wearing James ring. James knows what he did was wrong and that he always should have known it. Donna wants him to come home, but he can't (sort of like Cooper and Billy). Donna wants to be a part of something good now after being a part of the horrible things. Poor Donna. She's about to get one aspect that Billy considers to be the most horrifying of all, mostly because it deals with himself: She's going to turn out to be Benjamin Horne's child
- Donna knows when James returns he will have stories to tell that won't include Laura or Maddie or Evelyn.
We have the world of Twin Peaks being brought back to stories again, the type that Billy loved.
- Harry goes to Blue Pine Lodge to find Josie, having guessed what Albert and Dale were whispering about behind his back.
He interrupts Catherine reading Great Expectations, no doubt nursing her own along with her drink.
Catherine rather coyly let's it be known that Josie took her car (Josie and a car again) to the Great Northern where she met an old friend named Thomas Eckhardt.
- Despite his earlier words to Josie, Andrew now let's Thomas know that he is alive and well. He even lies and states that Josie saved him, making Eckhardt believe he was betrayed. Andrew seems to be fully aware of his enemy's love for Josie and tries to blacken it, stating that Eckhardt should be careful, and the man replies he always is. Yet...he won't be. This brings up a very interesting point: though Josie kept fearing Thomas would kill her, the man seems obsessed with her to the point it doesn't even seem like an option. Infact, other than the sexual/emotional kind, Eckhardt seems to not show any evidence of physically harming her, as opposed to Jonathan, or even what Andrew and Catherine are flat out doing to the girl. It doesn't mean it isn't happening, but why the push that Josie's life is at stake when it doesn't seem to be. What's really going on here?
- In the dining room of the Great Northern, Ben, Audrey and Jack have supper, a fire roaring behind them. Ben goes to smoke but then stops himself, his "healthy" living kicking in again.
- Ben wants Jack to be his teacher, telling him "Think of me as an open book, upon whose virgin pages you shall scribe," a comment which makes Audrey choke that the word "virgin" would ever be used for her father.
We suggest, this is Billy still trying to re-form his father's memory into something better. We have book used again, just like stories, and how Billy is using Twin Peaks to rewrite his past.
- When asked by Audrey what he does, Billy says he buys bankrupt businesses and streamlines them, brings them up to speed and then sells them for a profit.
That's what Billy is essentially doing here, taking his morally bankrupt family, the Hornes, and trying to make them more profitable for his personal piece of mind.
Ben adds that he not only does that, but leaves them more environmentally sound. When Jack is finished with them, Ben praises, "the waste is rerouted, the air...The air is cleaner. And the people happier."
Bingo. Just what Billy's trying to do too, and it's not lost on us that Jack is played by a Billy here either. Billy Hastings, is trying to purify his family too, making them all the way more clean and happy to suit his liking more than the truth.
We've also got the environment being connected with the Hornes trauma again, just as we likened the Great Northern's construction being symbolic of Ben being abused by his father and Ghostwood representing Audrey's abuse by Ben in turn. We can even liken this all to the Trinity bomb which supposedly hearalded BOB's birth to earth. They are all acts which hurt nature (even though nature is cruel in itself, as Windom said) and all can be connected to the Hornes.
Now Jack has come out of the blue and is gonna save 'em all! Yes haw! We reckon just like a tale out of one of Sonny Jim's storybooks.
- This is all too good to be true, that even Audrey comments that he sounds like Santa Claus. She repeats the statement after Ben has left to save Jerry whom has almost been stabbed by a chef. The comparison to Santa makes sense. Jack is no more real than he is. This is, afterall, just Billy's way of fixing things for his mother and family and keeping Audrey safe...just like Santa or, more appropriately, a cowboy riding in to save the day in an old western.
- Audrey states that the Hornes have taken care of themselves for ages, and though desperate they might seem, they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
What Audrey doesn't realize is that her family, her father and she, had no future. Neither did Billy, in his own way. They were all destroyed, by the fire that burned down the motel, and by the fire/abuse that destroyed them long before that. This, is her son's attempt to fix it all, in a dream, before all future pasts were lost to them.
- Audrey asks Jack where he'd been for all those years and he tells her, "The far corners of the earth. I tell you, it's glorious out there, Audrey. All in all, it's good to be home."
Billy is in effect coming home, but trying to make it a better one, wishing somehow for a life with his mother and family which isn't corrupted. This is his second attempt to be with the woman he loves in a way that won't make him feel dirty or ashamed any more.
- Jack's words indirectly remind Audrey of Billy's first attempt to be with her, something actually stated in the script:
"Wheeler says it simply, without affect. Audrey's never met a man like him before. With a single exception ... Agent Cooper. And that goes straight to the heart of her."
No wonder he reminds her of Cooper! He IS Cooper! Jack and he are both Billy and designed to be, at their very core, in love with Audrey Horne, just like he is.
- Audrey now tells him that she is 18, remembering in pain Cooper's refusal of her because of the fact. Jack simply responds: "And what exactly does that have to do with the price of eggs?"
It's a direct rebuttal of his too-good self, letting Audrey know that that won't stop this "dream lover".
We have to comment, though, that the connotation that Jack saw Audrey when she was only 10 and fancied her IS rather upsetting, and that it was in the same dining room where they are eating, linking it to appetite/hunger, which is predominate in the whole BOB as predator theme and how we believe it masks what Ben did to Audrey, in part. The truth is ALWAYS creeping in, like BOB through the window, and Billy seems as influenced by it even when he's not trying to be.
On the other hand, he can be trying to reverse the own imbalance in age and power in his own relationship with his mom. Or perhaps Billy had her be 10 when she sparked his interest because that is the age he permanently feels inside of his mind/soul and he really wanted them to be equal.
Should mention eggs being referenced conjures up memories of the Experiment vomiting down her own stream of eggs, that cost those they encountered quite a lot we suspect.
- Audrey leaves the conversation to go to the Roadhouse, which directly has to do with Cooper (though she doesn't know this), whom she had just been reminded of.
- Shelly and Donna meet at the Roadhouse, each having brought their torn piece of the poem Windom sent. When they place their pieces together, Audrey soon appears, adding her own. Together it reads:
"See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea--
What is all this sweet work worth,
If thou kiss not me?"
It is the last part of Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
We can clearly draw a parallel between this poem, using nature as an allegory for love, and the already discussed themes of nature and its destruction becoming symbolic for the different abuses that occurred within the Horne family. We can even connect that to Jack's sudden appearance, whom seeks to help heal the environment.
The line too "No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdain'd its brother" holds special significance to this theory when we realize that Billy and his mother were also brother and sister, and that Audrey was specifically called the flower of Twin Peaks by David Lynch himself.
Another bit of interesting knowledge to be dreamed over, however, comes from the information that, in the original script, it was actually supposed to be Robert's (Bob) Desnos' poem "I Have Dreamed of You so Much" that was used.
The gathered "angels" were supposed to read this:
"I have dreamed so much of you
walked so much, spoken, lain with your phantom...
That all I have to do now perhaps is to be a phantom
among phantoms and a ghost hundred times...
More than the ghost who walks gaily over the sun-dial of
your life."
Even more curious is how most translations of the last lines read this way instead:
"and a hundred times more shadow than the shadow which saunters and will saunter so gladly over the sundial of your life."
Ghost was meant to read as "shadow". That that is what Dale Cooper lost himself to at the end, his shadow self, seems pertinent.
And so we can look to the full poem (another translation of it) then and perhaps find more clues:
"I have dreamed of you so much that you are no longer real.
Is there still time for me to reach your breathing body, to kiss your mouth and make
your dear voice come alive again?
I have dreamed of you so much that my arms, grown used to being crossed on my
chest as I hugged your shadow, would perhaps not bend to the shape of your body.
For faced with the real form of what has haunted me and governed me for so many
days and years, I would surely become a shadow.
O scales of feeling.
I have dreamed of you so much that surely there is no more time for me to wake up.
I sleep on my feet prey to all the forms of life and love, and you, the only one who
counts for me today, I can no more touch your face and lips than touch the lips and
face of some passerby.
I have dreamed of you so much, have walked so much, talked so much, slept so much
with your phantom, that perhaps the only thing left for me is to become a phantom
among phantoms, a shadow a hundred times more shadow than the shadow the
moves and goes on moving, brightly, over the sundial of your life."
In the poem a man loves and even seems to mourn for the woman he is separated from, finding her only in his dreams, because she has either died or will no longer be equal to what he has dreamt; her real appearance would turn him into a shadow. He has dreamt of her so often he no longer wishes to wake, preferring the dream. He sleeps standing, as if giving the appearance that he is awake, and she is all that matters to him, and yet he can far easier touch a passerby than he can touch her. He has dreamt of her so much and existed so much with her phantom that all that is left is for him to become is a phantom more phantom than the rest, a shadow that becomes more than the shadow that moves and actually touches/reaches her.
This poem can completely encapsulate this theme of Twin Peaks, the essence of it, not only as horror story, but a love story of the most tragic kind, although most would consider it grotesque. For it confesses Billy's love for the woman whom hurt and shaped him, the woman he still loves and can only find in a dream: his mother. We have both Lodges coming full force into view in this latter fragment of the series, and this is of Billy's love, be it wrong or right, healthy of unhealthy.
It mirrors exactly Lynch's own Frank Booth, whom listened to the similarly themed "In Dreams" and most likely thought of his own mother, refusing to let Ben reach the part of the song that reveals the sad truth:
"But just before the dawn
I awake and find you gone
I can't help it
I can't help it
If I cry
I remember that you said goodbye
It's too bad that all these things
Can only happen in my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams..."
Frank forces Dorothy to become his mother and live out his dream, yet, deep down, he suspects the truth and one night, finding he has been betrayed, deprives Dorothy of the blue velvet she's become accustomed to, leaving her just as exposed as Cooper without his dark suit. And in this similarity, we can actually see Jeffrey Beaumont AS being just like Frank, furthering Kyle MacLachlan's claim that he saw Cooper as a grown up Beaumont.
For Cooper is Billy and they are all in love with their mother, as abusive as she might have been. However, dreams are the only way they can hold out any hope of being with her again, for she is gone.
Compare "I Have Dreamed of You so Much" and "In Dreams" to "My Prayer" heard twice to startling effect in The Return. The theme is similar, especially in this one line: "My prayer is to linger with you
At the end of the day in a dream that's divine."
David Lynch confessed once he makes a story and then takes away the major parts to turn it into a mystery. We suspect, he did this even more with Twin Peaks, whom's secret/mystery he guarded zealously, especially after it had almost been taken from him without his consent. We also theorize that if something was too close to revealing the secret he would substitute it with something else to preserve it, very much as Billy did. In this case, it is interesting to consider that he saw switching "I Have Dreamed of You so Much" with "Love's Philosophy" which carried through the theme of nature and incest, but without the major clues of it being all about a lovesick man's dream to be near his lover, a dream where he would become a shadow at its season's end.
- As the 3 women/angels, discuss its strangeness, Windom watches them. Now, of note, is how Windom clearly has the best view of Audrey Horne. His focus is on her. Infact, throughout most of his story, it seemed to be hinting that his most likely Queen would infact be Audrey. That was whom it was SUPPOSED to be before MacLachlan interfered. But what is weird is how it still looks like, through actual incidents in the script and visual/audio clues, that it still SHOULD and would have been Audrey.
But this makes no sense when they had just introduced Jack for Audrey and were about to introduce Annie for Dale. But it remains a strong indication. Infact, when Windom meets Audrey in a library (libraries being filled with stories, outside of a library being the place where Lynch took the photo of Teresa wearing the Owl Cave ring, and Ruth Davenport, whom Audrey shared the lamp of, being a librarian) and has her read the poem, he outright comments how she looks very much like a queen.
So it feels forced when Annie is his queen instead.
Unless we realize it was always supposed to be Audrey. To protect her, Billy used the magic trick of substitution (Annie) to protect her and himself, like always. And, once again, it was a trick David Lynch also liked performing, especially when networks, writers and actors forced him to work a bit of magic.
- A shot of the falls leads in to Dale Cooper, playing fisherman on his bed at the Great Northern. He's got a tackle box open on his bed and is fooling around with a fly lure.
First, let's get the juvenile bit out of he way. We can easily make a joke about Dale playing with his fishing pole/rod in his bedroom. It actually won't be the only masturbation reference we can make with Cooper, and we believe that Billy probably did this act a lot himself, being awkward and antisocial.
We can also link this to the fact that Billy Hastings is an avid fisherman. Even more interesting is how it is under fishing equipment in the trunk of his car they find the lump of flesh. This is the car he drove Betty home in afterall. And now, before that, Cooper is shown with his own tackle box. What makes this even more interesting is that it's before the whole Josie incident and wasn't in the script. Fishing - Josie - Betty.
- Another thing to think about is how, after Catherine (who has Dale's number for some reason) phones and tells him that Josie is in Thomas Eckhardt's suite, he goes into his nightstand drawer and gets out his gun.
Why is this so interesting?
Well because, according to the script, Dale was supposed to already have his gun out before the call, and be examining it. Secondly, he always keeps it ON the nightstand, not in the drawer. Lastly, with the Log Lady's intro, and more importantly what's about to happen to Josie, that Dale has to use a drawer pull to get in at the gun hidden there seems incredibly important.
- So Cooper, minus the fishing cap (good idea), goes to Eckhardt's room and overhears some interesting dialogue from Josie and Eckhardt.
This too is changed from the script. It was supposed to be about Harry:
MAN'S VOICE (from inside one of the rooms): Say it, SAY YOU DON'T LOVE HIM!!
Cooper now stands outside the door.
WOMAN'S VOICE: No! Not as long as I live...
MAN'S VOICE: Then you won't.
What Dale hears is this:
JOSIE: Help! Please help.
THOMAS: I love you.
JOSIE: No!
THOMAS: Josie. For God's sake-
JOSIE: Don't touch me. Don't touch me! Don't hurt me.
Once again, we have no indication that Thomas planned on physically hurting or killing Josie. Why was this changed?
What if it was because what Cooper believes he is hearing between Josie and Eckhardt more accurately is what he, as Billy, heard his mother (Audrey) saying to their father (Ben). This is what he overheard through the walls of the motel where they all lived, not the Great Northern but the Red Diamond/Dutchman's?
- When Cooper enters the room, he finds a contrasting scene from what he heard. Josie and Eckhardt are lying in bed together. Suddenly Thomas rises, walks towards Coop and we see he has been wounded. In the script he has a gun, here he doesn't, further dissuading from any notion he was going to kill her. He falls to the floor and we see Josie kneeling on the bed and pointing a gun at Dale.
- Josie seems to be wearing traditional Chinese dress, indicating a return to home for her.
- She claims Eckhardt was going to kill her, which Dale doubts asking if he, Dale, was going to kill her, or Jonathan too. Josie says she shot Jonathan because he was taking her back.
When Dale asks why she shot him, she answers because he came there. She then says she knew that that this day would come and she's not going to jail, she can't.
So once again we come back to the fact that it looks like Eckhardt wasn't going to kill her. So the fear of going/being with Eckhardt was what terrified her. Is this still related to Billy's mother's feelings about being trapped with their father?
Why did Josie shoot Coop? Because he came there? Maybe there still is some link between WHEN Josie shot Coop and what was happening with Audrey and Ben at One-Eyed Jack's? Was Josie some conduit for Billy's mother's feelings, or what he believed she felt? That had he not been conceived, she might have escaped. Josie wore a mask at the time she shot Cooper, just as Audrey wore a mask as Ben cornered her.
This is all still happening at the Great Northern too.
But does her sudden fear of going to jail echo Billy's fear about going to jail for killing American Girl? Can both his mother's fear of being trapped with their father echo her son's fear of going to prison? Does Billy also fear that if he were to be arrested all of his painful secrets, his being the result of his mother's rape by their father, his being abused by her and possibly his dad too, his setting the motel on fire, would be brought to light, something he dreads more than death?
Can this be linked in any way to secrets being kept in drawers?
- Harry rushes in and angrily tells Josie to put the gun down. She's genuinely sorry and apologizes to Harry. She looks like she might turn the gun on herself, but holds it to her chest (like nightstand?) and then gasps for breath and collapses. Harry runs to her, pronounces her dead.
We wonder what killed her until we suddenly see a spotlight light up Dale Cooper and then the Great Northern bed, which is suddenly empty, no Harry, no Josie. A left hand appears on it and then BOB, missing until now, despite there being other deaths/murders appears.
"Coop, what happened to Josie?" he asks and starts maniacally laughing.
Soon he disappears and we see the Arm dancing on the bed.
They disappear, Harry is back holding Josie's body and crying as he repeats her name.
The camera pans across to the nightstand and then we have the infamous shot of Josie being stuck in the drawer pull. She starts off human and turns into wood.
Okay, so...what exactly did happen to Josie?!?
We have BOB being here and the Arm, so under the guise of this theory it somehow involves how Billy views his father living within him and his uncle too. The Arm is still dancing, which can't be connected to Leland now, if it ever was...because maybe it's all still just about Cooper/Billy.
So does this have to do with Billy's mother still, as theorized, or is there another option?
The Log Lady mentioned power plays and Josie being stuck in one, between Andrew and Eckhardt, we presume. Does this echo BOB and MIKE's own power plays? How about their one for Laura or the corn?
But if Coop/Billy killed "Laura" what does that mean?
Cooper was shown to get his gun out from his own nightstand drawer, about the only time he was seen doing so...did HE kill Josie under BOB's influence? Did Billy? Was it for the same reason as Laura/American Girl or to save his secrets like with Betty?
There seems to be an indication that Josie is connected somehow to The Great Northern. The original series finale was supposed to show her body hanging in the Red Room. Was this a clear hint that it and the Great Northern were connected, just as the Northern was also linked to the Convenience Store and the Dutchman's? Did Lynch scrap it because it also gave too much away?
Did Josie know about Billy's past connection to the Dutchman?
Does this still connect to Betty in any way, all those years later? Is Betty, one of the many Judys still Josie's sister?
Who was Josie? A mother substitute, someone Billy was attracted to? Remember Dale showed an instant attraction to Josie. Someone who found out too much and was killed for it? Did she kill herself? Did fear really kill her, why we'll find out in the next episode she weighed like 65 pounds? BOB or the Arm obviously consumed her. Did Billy threaten her?
The truth is, we feel like there is an answer here but we're not hitting it exactly. There are clear cut ties to Billy's mom and ties to also Billy himself and to Betty...but what's it really mean? We've already discussed this episode for long enough...we might have to try to open this drawer some other night.
The theory: Twin Peaks is the dream of William "Billy" Hastings, a serial killer. The result of his mother's abuse, at the hands of her father, Billy was abused by her in turn, keeping the cycle going. Playing with fire, as abused/neglected/antisocial children are prone to, he accidentally burned down the motel where he lived with his mother and grandfather/father, killing them. He was sent to live with his grandmother/great-grandmother, until she died too. Billy then went to live with his strict, born again uncle. In high school, Billy became obsessed with a schoolmate, the American Girl. He murdered her, the first in a string of victims, all similar in the way that they reminded him of his mother. To deal with his past and what he'd become, he constructed the world of Twin Peaks, allowing him to also "protect" and honor his mother, the woman he both loved and feared. Inside of the dream, Billy's family was represented by both the Hornes and the Lodge Spirits, while Billy's main avatar was our hero Dale Cooper. Inside of his dream, Billy sought to project his tragedy and sins onto his victim's family instead, which worked for a while. However, if the OG is a representation of how Billy got away with murder, the Return is how he was eventually discovered by the mother of his first victim, an act precipitated by his involvement with Betty, his final victim.
A longer essay on the theory: https://armsholdair.dreamwidth.org/7192.html
WARNING: A knowledge of the whole Twin Peaks series is needed for this, fittingly from A to Z and Z back to A.
The Log Lady intro circles around the fate of Josie obviously, stating, "A hotel. A nightstand. A drawer pull on the drawer. A drawer pull of a nightstand in the room of a hotel. What could possibly be happening on or in this drawer pull? " And yet her words also tantalizingly can apply to this theory, for the fact that she's emphasizing that a hotel is playing a role in the situation, and this hotel happens to belong to the Hornes. Afterall, we theorize that Billy lived in a motel with his mother and grandfather/father and they were Audrey and Ben, or some version of them.
Margaret points out the overabundance of drawer pulls in the world. She asks what a drawer pull is. Well, technically it is something that opens a drawer of a cabinet, nightstand etc...Is she pointing out it can be opened then, or hide something? Cole, episodes ago, stated about people whom make a living of going through other people's drawers, as in snooping.
The Log Lady asks, "This drawer pull - why is it featured so prominently in a life or in a death of one woman who was caught in a web of power? Can a victim of power end, in any way, connected to a drawer pull? How can this be?"
The camera shifts to a closeup of Margaret as she asks that. Josie was used by both Thomas and Andrew, friends whom also had a rivalry going and wished to take the other down, but Thomas' feeling were more emphasized as being spurred on by love and possession of Josie. Secrets might have played a role somehow.
We have a connection that will come later too, which can equate to Andrew and Thomas, but we'll get into that more then.
What the Log Lady doesn't outright mention is how the pull is made of wood, possibly trees from Ghostwood. Those woods and the trees therein maybe linked to the abuse of Audrey, as we have already suggested.
- The episode begins with the rest of Windom's tape playing as the camera pans over certain items on Harry S Truman's desk. That it starts with the paperweight of an owl, encased in a glass dome, is interesting, especially when it also focuses on the chess board and Caroline's mask. We're trying to claim that this is all about the Hornes, owls being code for them, and the last half of the original series deals with Billy's battle against himself and his dark nature. We also have been speculating that Caroline is another form/mask/decoy Billy created for his mother. So looking at this sequence, we can say that on the one end, the owl in the dome, represents Audrey, a more accurate portrait of his mother, being protected inside of his fantasy so she won't end up like the Caroline version of her whom died inside of it to, and is represented at the other end. Billy wants his mother to live. In between sits the chessboard which is the war, to fight against anything happening to her, and that includes by his own hand, Dale's.
- Windom has noticed that Dale's heart isn't in it, his thoughts elsewhere. Where we wonder? Josie? Or perhaps is it Audrey herself? He's denied her and distanced himself, but is the secret part of himself wanting her, just as Mr. C betrays? Remember Dale's repressed urges, his secret self's first action practically is to go pay Audrey Horne a visit, before he eventually leaves Twin Peaks.
- Cooper says that if Windom wanted him dead, he already would be. Why doesn't he? Or is that just part of Billy's "story" and downfall, his dark side leading up for when he can swap father Windom and Goody Dale for BOB and Mr. C?
- Cooper says to get Pete on the horn. Hmmm...we forgot calling someone could be referenced as such, along with giving them a ring...Neat to be able to connect all of those and then think of moments like when Mr. C's conversation with Phillip Jeffries about Judy gets interrupted by a "horn".
- Harry compliments Caroline and Cooper says she was the love of his life...so, once again, why didn't he save HER and not Laura??? Why the obsession with Laura, or was that because HE killed her and was about to get arrested/punished for it? That's what The Return centers around, what he/Billy is truly guilty of and where it started: the night Laura died, not the night in Pittsburgh.
- Andrew and Catherine are now in charge of Ghostwood. Billy has used his "dream" to rip it away from his father/grandfather and give it away to a brother and sister instead.
- Josie walks in through the door carrying an armful of twigs. That's technically wood. We've linked Ghostwood to Audrey's abuse and Josie is destined to become trapped in a wooden drawer pull after she's frightened to death. Now, in foreshadowing, she falls to the floor after seeing Andrew alive and "home".
- The forces that be still are circling around Josie, both Hank threatening to tell everyone she killed Andrew and Albert telling Cooper that Josie was definitely the one who shot him.
- Audrey is dipping her feet into different jobs at the Great Northern, to help her learn the business. Today she is obviously ruffling the concierge, Randy's, feather's; he thinks she's after his job. He can't wait to see her tackle housekeeping.
That was what Nicky's mother was, at the actual Great Northern too.
Becoming a maid in her own house, was what also happened to Josie.
- Randy gives Audrey Windom's letter, saying it arrived that morning, but didn't it get there last night? Anyway, she's got it now.
- Okay, so now in walks a certain character, tall, dark, handsome, whom walks up to Audrey as she's sitting at the concierge desk, fooling around with her name tag.
He's just checked into room 215.
He realizes Audrey is a Horne, and seems surprised. He requests her help in getting his heavy equipment to the hotel, there having not been enough room in the van. She asks what flight he was on, he replies his own and she seems put off, thinking he thinks he's rich and powerful.
As he's set to leave, he says he has a photograph of her in certain attire. Audrey counters she doesn't wear it. He says she did then and it was right there in the Great Northern dining room (food/appetite appearing again, and in a disturbing way when we learn how old Audrey was). If he closes his eyes, he can see it: "Little Audrey Horne as Heidi."
Hmm...a story about a little girl who lives in the mountains? The little girl who lived down the lane in Twin Peaks.
Anyway, he turns to walk away and Audrey realizes he's talking about an event from when she was 10, but he's gone by then.
A lot to unpack here, and it's all kind of simple and also unsettling and important at once.
This guy...he's just kind of plopped down. That's in effect what he was because he's Audrey's new love interest. That could help explain things, the writers hastily coming up with a replacement for Cooper...
But there's something not right.
He's staying in room 215. That's exactly a 100 off from Cooper's room itself. Then Audrey says the photograph he has of her was from when she was 10. 100 and 10 are both numbers of completion as Gordon Cole would say in The Return.
And about that last bit of having a photo of a 10 year old...not only is that creepy but it's outright hinting he doesn't care about her age, as opposed to Cooper.
His outfit isn't Coop's dark suit either, he's unabashedly western...and yet, we've already speculated that Cooper/Billy likes cowboys, if Harry as his idealized father, a statue Dougie/Coop stares at and Sonny Jim's bedroom are any indication. Plus, there will be a scene later on, when this cowboy and Cooper actually meet one another in front of a blazing fire in the Hornes' hotel, where Dale is seen drinking from a very odd but relevant measuring cup featuring a cowboy.
We are claiming right now that THIS character isn't just the writers replacement for Dale Cooper he IS Billy's replacement for him too. Well, not so much a replacement, but a substitute.
A wish from Cooper, whom is really still just Billy, himself.
Why would Coop need an alternative self, besides just for his "rules"?
Well. What happens next helps to elaborate on this.
- Audrey opens Windom's letter to find one third of the letter that Earle had Leo write. It appears to be a poem, and comes with a more legible and whole note "Save the one you love. Please attend gathering of angels
tonight at the Road House, 9:30."
This...this is why a substitute lover has been dropped infront of Audrey Horne. Windom Earle has finally reached out and touched Audrey, placing her existence within the dream in jeopardy, something neither Cooper, nor his true self Billy, can stand.
As the letter says...
"Save the one you love."
John "Jack" Justice Wheeler is one of the ways for Billy to do that.
Remember when Windom told Dale that it was his move? Well this IS his next move.
If Dale could save any one pawn or Queen it would be his Audrey.
Think of the owl kept safe in its dome. Think later too, of Audrey, apparently kept safe in her world with Charlie, which she soon feels trapped inside.
- "Young" Nadine breaks up with Ed to be with the much younger Mike, telling Ed they have to call a spade a spade.
Mr. C had the symbol, possibly for Judy, written on a scratched Ace of Spades card.
- Cooper talks with Josie, imploring him to tell him about Seattle and Jonathan. He gives her the ultimatum to be at the Station by 9 to confess everything or he will find her.
9 is 30 minutes before the gathering of angels.
To be honest, we're still examining this whole Cooper and Josie dynamic in relation to Billy's later relationship with Betty. And we still recall how Dale revealed an instant attraction to Josie when he asked Harry "Who's the babe?" which sounded like a 16 year old boy's remark, which Billy would have been at that time. Josie, like Audrey, is opposite to the whole Caroline, Laura and Annie thing, as well as Diane and Janey-E later. But even Dougie, when he was cheating, chose the dark Jade as his secret lover. And we still believe the dark beauty Ronette was Billy's American Girl.
But who is Josie? Just another aspect to help explore his mother? Betty's sister? Someone else Billy was attracted to, or whom threatened him, like Betty? We honestly don't know.
- Catherine, whom had been listening in, asks if Cooper had been paying a social call (more insinuation of Billy being attracted to whomever Josie represents to him?). She frightens Josie with talk about Eckhardt, and what he will do once he knows Andrew is alive. Josie believes he will kill her. Catherine gets a book from off the shelf, leaving Josie to gratefully find a gun waiting there for her.
So Catherine wants Josie to kill Eckhardt and then go to jail? The book she will be seen reading later is Great Expectations. That was also the same book Dale had on his nightstand in the first season. Any relation to Josie turning into a drawer pull on a nightstand?
All that seems clear, at this stage, is that Billy is painting one woman's terror of one man, which could represent his mother's fear of their father.
- Ben, whom is apparently trying to be healthier in body and spirit, attends to a group gathered in his office consisting of Audrey, Jerry and Bobby, whom he insists stay. He says, "You know, board meetings are usually nothing more than a gathering of self-minded individuals, each more intent than the other on financial gain." Is that what the Convenience Store meeting is essentially in FWWM? Is that what the unhealthy Ben's meetings were before Billy has tried to redeem/clean him inside his fantasy?
Is Ben making himself "better" echoing Cooper's own strict adherence to his own oaths.
- There's a fire burning in Ben's office.
- The Cooper substitute comes in, and Ben obviously knows and likes him, introducing him to everyone: John Justice Wheeler. He used to be in construction, came up the hard way. Ben believed in the local boy "Jack" and gave him a pittance, which he built into an empire. Audrey isn't so impressed, or doesn't let herself appear to be. Meanwhile, Jack says Ben is testing his well-worn modesty.
We find out more about Jack and it's all a little too convenient and strange. First the guys name. He shares the name of Ben's son and Audrey's brother: John. But his nickname is Jack, as in the name of the brothel Ben used to own and Audrey was just rescued from by Cooper. Then we have Justice thrown in, which is just/fair behavior and treatment. Plus you end ir all off with Wheeler, which invokes the whole circle motif again.
We think that this is Billy's way of trying to enact some justice. Audrey, he believes, should be kept away from the whole Windom danger, plus she needs someone whom can treat her a little better than the damaged, too perfect, Cooper was able to, not to mention the possibility that Billy always intended for his main avatar not to become sexual with his mother inside of the dreamworld, but trying to establish "healthy" boundaries to fix things he was ashamed about.
Plus, this guy, this "Jack" also functions as possibly the father Billy had once believed or fantasized he had. When The Return aired, it was a major debate amongst fans whether Mr. C or Jack was the father of Richard. Both seemed logical, especially given how Audrey had definitely slept with Jack before he left town. That made him a very large candidate. But that was partially what Billy needed as well. He wanted to think someone like Jack Wheeler was his father, because that was another function this new character provided in his dreamscape: it could help further deviate from his accepting that his own grandfather was actually his father.
Think of Jack Rabbit's palace, where Bobby and his own father used to play and make believe...But also think about how there's a large statue of a Jack Rabbit in Odessa Texas named "Jack BEN Rabbit" after its founder John BEN Sheppard, because deep down, that fact can't be escaped, echoed in the fact that this man is someone Ben fashioned in his partial likeness, or how his name is Wheeler, as in cycle. Billy's true parentage haunts his dreamworld, intruding even where it isn't wanted.
Billy himself intrudes in the "construct" of Jack, as indicated by his name also being John, Audrey's brother, just as Billy and his mother were brother and sister, and how Jack is like the son Ben Horne wished Johnny had been. Inside of Billy's dream, maybe he grants his family a few dreams each for themselves.
- Looking at the word Horne, besides the links to owls, bucks and roses, it can also look like "Home" if you place the r and n closely together.
- This meeting seems to be about getting Ghostwood back or undermining Catherine's plans for it.
- Ben states that the greatest gift a human being can give to another is the future...
"Through the darkness of future past, the Magician longs to see..."
Billy wishes his father/grandfather had given him a better future.
- Ben hopes to save the Pine Weasel, which is being threatened by the Packard plans for Ghostwood development. He seems to want to save the environment, but Jerry speculates "So we block Catherine's development until the wheel turns and we get another shot. That's brilliant, Ben. That's brilliant."
Basically, Jerry's assessment is true when we discover, in The Return, that that was just what Ben did. It's kind of similar to how Jerry knew that Ben's claim that he wouldn't take advantage of Beverly was just a lie to himself. Jerry seems to see right through his brother, making their connection/similarities to MIKE and BOB even more pronounced.
Then we have the animal that Ben is trying to save, having been once considered a sexually deviant, phallic like pet, sometimes used in old paintings for dubious meanings...this particular weasel he is now linking to Ghostwood, which we disturbingly link to his abuse of his daughter.
So, it appears, no matter how Billy might be trying to clear and redeem his father, he will never be able to, for the man longs to be his true self, even while a different narrative is being forced on him.
- Ben then makes a joke about running for Senate next. We have that Lynch and Frost initially started as a partnership in planning some adaption of Marilyn Monroe's life. Lynch infact says Laura was all about Marilyn and so was Mulholland Drive. And yet Sherilyn Fenn looks more like Munroe than Sheryl Lee does and Mulholland Drive was meant to be about Audrey. Before Dale met Audrey, he was even wondering about the Kennedys role in Marilyn's death. Now we have Ben joking about running for Senate, just like the Kennedy brothers. We state it again: This whole thing is about the Hornes.
- Windom leaves his letter for Shelly at the Double R, while Norma talks to her sister on the phone. Now, we'll get into this sister when she's formally introduced, but what we need to pay attention about her now is how Norma viewed her as being "from another place and time" and how she just left the convent. We should also note how she's being mentioned on the same episode where Jack first appeared.
Balance.
Symmetry.
- Shelly gets the letter and reads about saving the one she loves and that she should be at the Roadhouse at 9:30. Norma wisely thinks it's dangerous.
- Windom plays teacher to Leo in the wilderness, as he has Leo working on whittling wood for arrows. One of the lessons Windom says is that nature is cruel. We can perhaps tie this to the "nature" of Billy's own father, or the unnatural relationships that perpetuated his family, and we might then also link this to Ghostwood again, and its real meaning.
- Norma asks Hank for a divorce but the man indicates he will only give it to her if she gives him an alibi for the attempt on Leo's life. It is clearly portrayed how desperate Hank is to stay out of prison, mirroring Josie's own fears, believing it will end their lives. This is probably Billy's own feelings on the subject, more than anything. He fears going to jail partly because then Mr. C can't come out to play. Billy is becoming a slave to his murderous urges and they soon will become the only thing that drives him. He also fears discovery because then they will delve into his past and everyone, including himself, will be forced to learn about his history.
- At the station, Pete gives Dale his next move, claiming it will be 5 or 6 moves before Windom can take another piece from the board. Harry fears Earle will just kill out of frustration, Cooper says Windom holds a perverse sense of honor about these things.
- Albert comes bearing more nails for Josie's coffin, this time that there was gun powder on her gloves that matched the shootings of Coop and Jonathan and that people ID'd her exiting Jonathan's car. So if we're looking for anything at all that is similar from Josie to Betty, we have that Josie killed Jonathan in a car and Billy drove Betty home in his, before her own exploded afterwards, but we suspect Hastings still just might have tried to kill her in his own car. We know it's stupid...but we have to list this sort of thing.
- A shot of Josie preparing to meet Eckhardt is staged similar to Josie's first scene from the pilot. Only the dogs from the lamp are now separated...kind of like Audrey and Cooper, an odd observation to make, perhaps, but one we still make.
Come to think of it, Josie looking in the mirror can be connected to Audrey looking in the mirror. Josie also did what many people with personality disorders do: mirror people back at themselves, so they see what they want to, which is basically themselves. Coop/Dougie survives mainly by doing this, and we suspect it showed how Billy survived detection as a monster from his ability of mirroring human behavior back at people.
This can provide one interesting thread between Josie and Betty. We suspect tulpas represent people that Billy believed put on a false self for others. That Diane, whom we believe is one of the dreamworld substitutes for Betty, had one shows that Billy saw Betty as false somehow. This can tie into the thread, as well, of someone trying to spy on someone to find out what they are hiding, or, in other words, going through their drawers. Josie and Betty are linked by this. But does that still indicate that Josie was someone whom was getting to close to finding out what Billy was?
- Andrew and Josie have a discussion where it is obvious Josie wants his help. He makes the statement that maybe she and Eckhardt were meant to be together all along, and that maybe Eckhardt can get her out of the country.
It is a very deceptively cruel conversation. Andrew feigns kindness and yet he barely means any of it.
Still confused over the whole triangle to be honest. We guess Josie was working for Eckhardt because she was terrified of him? We can still compare the Eckhardt/Josie dynamic to the one Billy's mother had with their father. In her mind, she was a prisoner in the same way that Billy fears becoming one.
- Donna and James have a picnic. Donna isn't wearing James ring. James knows what he did was wrong and that he always should have known it. Donna wants him to come home, but he can't (sort of like Cooper and Billy). Donna wants to be a part of something good now after being a part of the horrible things. Poor Donna. She's about to get one aspect that Billy considers to be the most horrifying of all, mostly because it deals with himself: She's going to turn out to be Benjamin Horne's child
- Donna knows when James returns he will have stories to tell that won't include Laura or Maddie or Evelyn.
We have the world of Twin Peaks being brought back to stories again, the type that Billy loved.
- Harry goes to Blue Pine Lodge to find Josie, having guessed what Albert and Dale were whispering about behind his back.
He interrupts Catherine reading Great Expectations, no doubt nursing her own along with her drink.
Catherine rather coyly let's it be known that Josie took her car (Josie and a car again) to the Great Northern where she met an old friend named Thomas Eckhardt.
- Despite his earlier words to Josie, Andrew now let's Thomas know that he is alive and well. He even lies and states that Josie saved him, making Eckhardt believe he was betrayed. Andrew seems to be fully aware of his enemy's love for Josie and tries to blacken it, stating that Eckhardt should be careful, and the man replies he always is. Yet...he won't be. This brings up a very interesting point: though Josie kept fearing Thomas would kill her, the man seems obsessed with her to the point it doesn't even seem like an option. Infact, other than the sexual/emotional kind, Eckhardt seems to not show any evidence of physically harming her, as opposed to Jonathan, or even what Andrew and Catherine are flat out doing to the girl. It doesn't mean it isn't happening, but why the push that Josie's life is at stake when it doesn't seem to be. What's really going on here?
- In the dining room of the Great Northern, Ben, Audrey and Jack have supper, a fire roaring behind them. Ben goes to smoke but then stops himself, his "healthy" living kicking in again.
- Ben wants Jack to be his teacher, telling him "Think of me as an open book, upon whose virgin pages you shall scribe," a comment which makes Audrey choke that the word "virgin" would ever be used for her father.
We suggest, this is Billy still trying to re-form his father's memory into something better. We have book used again, just like stories, and how Billy is using Twin Peaks to rewrite his past.
- When asked by Audrey what he does, Billy says he buys bankrupt businesses and streamlines them, brings them up to speed and then sells them for a profit.
That's what Billy is essentially doing here, taking his morally bankrupt family, the Hornes, and trying to make them more profitable for his personal piece of mind.
Ben adds that he not only does that, but leaves them more environmentally sound. When Jack is finished with them, Ben praises, "the waste is rerouted, the air...The air is cleaner. And the people happier."
Bingo. Just what Billy's trying to do too, and it's not lost on us that Jack is played by a Billy here either. Billy Hastings, is trying to purify his family too, making them all the way more clean and happy to suit his liking more than the truth.
We've also got the environment being connected with the Hornes trauma again, just as we likened the Great Northern's construction being symbolic of Ben being abused by his father and Ghostwood representing Audrey's abuse by Ben in turn. We can even liken this all to the Trinity bomb which supposedly hearalded BOB's birth to earth. They are all acts which hurt nature (even though nature is cruel in itself, as Windom said) and all can be connected to the Hornes.
Now Jack has come out of the blue and is gonna save 'em all! Yes haw! We reckon just like a tale out of one of Sonny Jim's storybooks.
- This is all too good to be true, that even Audrey comments that he sounds like Santa Claus. She repeats the statement after Ben has left to save Jerry whom has almost been stabbed by a chef. The comparison to Santa makes sense. Jack is no more real than he is. This is, afterall, just Billy's way of fixing things for his mother and family and keeping Audrey safe...just like Santa or, more appropriately, a cowboy riding in to save the day in an old western.
- Audrey states that the Hornes have taken care of themselves for ages, and though desperate they might seem, they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
What Audrey doesn't realize is that her family, her father and she, had no future. Neither did Billy, in his own way. They were all destroyed, by the fire that burned down the motel, and by the fire/abuse that destroyed them long before that. This, is her son's attempt to fix it all, in a dream, before all future pasts were lost to them.
- Audrey asks Jack where he'd been for all those years and he tells her, "The far corners of the earth. I tell you, it's glorious out there, Audrey. All in all, it's good to be home."
Billy is in effect coming home, but trying to make it a better one, wishing somehow for a life with his mother and family which isn't corrupted. This is his second attempt to be with the woman he loves in a way that won't make him feel dirty or ashamed any more.
- Jack's words indirectly remind Audrey of Billy's first attempt to be with her, something actually stated in the script:
"Wheeler says it simply, without affect. Audrey's never met a man like him before. With a single exception ... Agent Cooper. And that goes straight to the heart of her."
No wonder he reminds her of Cooper! He IS Cooper! Jack and he are both Billy and designed to be, at their very core, in love with Audrey Horne, just like he is.
- Audrey now tells him that she is 18, remembering in pain Cooper's refusal of her because of the fact. Jack simply responds: "And what exactly does that have to do with the price of eggs?"
It's a direct rebuttal of his too-good self, letting Audrey know that that won't stop this "dream lover".
We have to comment, though, that the connotation that Jack saw Audrey when she was only 10 and fancied her IS rather upsetting, and that it was in the same dining room where they are eating, linking it to appetite/hunger, which is predominate in the whole BOB as predator theme and how we believe it masks what Ben did to Audrey, in part. The truth is ALWAYS creeping in, like BOB through the window, and Billy seems as influenced by it even when he's not trying to be.
On the other hand, he can be trying to reverse the own imbalance in age and power in his own relationship with his mom. Or perhaps Billy had her be 10 when she sparked his interest because that is the age he permanently feels inside of his mind/soul and he really wanted them to be equal.
Should mention eggs being referenced conjures up memories of the Experiment vomiting down her own stream of eggs, that cost those they encountered quite a lot we suspect.
- Audrey leaves the conversation to go to the Roadhouse, which directly has to do with Cooper (though she doesn't know this), whom she had just been reminded of.
- Shelly and Donna meet at the Roadhouse, each having brought their torn piece of the poem Windom sent. When they place their pieces together, Audrey soon appears, adding her own. Together it reads:
"See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdain'd its brother
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea--
What is all this sweet work worth,
If thou kiss not me?"
It is the last part of Love’s Philosophy by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
We can clearly draw a parallel between this poem, using nature as an allegory for love, and the already discussed themes of nature and its destruction becoming symbolic for the different abuses that occurred within the Horne family. We can even connect that to Jack's sudden appearance, whom seeks to help heal the environment.
The line too "No sister-flower would be forgiven If it disdain'd its brother" holds special significance to this theory when we realize that Billy and his mother were also brother and sister, and that Audrey was specifically called the flower of Twin Peaks by David Lynch himself.
Another bit of interesting knowledge to be dreamed over, however, comes from the information that, in the original script, it was actually supposed to be Robert's (Bob) Desnos' poem "I Have Dreamed of You so Much" that was used.
The gathered "angels" were supposed to read this:
"I have dreamed so much of you
walked so much, spoken, lain with your phantom...
That all I have to do now perhaps is to be a phantom
among phantoms and a ghost hundred times...
More than the ghost who walks gaily over the sun-dial of
your life."
Even more curious is how most translations of the last lines read this way instead:
"and a hundred times more shadow than the shadow which saunters and will saunter so gladly over the sundial of your life."
Ghost was meant to read as "shadow". That that is what Dale Cooper lost himself to at the end, his shadow self, seems pertinent.
And so we can look to the full poem (another translation of it) then and perhaps find more clues:
"I have dreamed of you so much that you are no longer real.
Is there still time for me to reach your breathing body, to kiss your mouth and make
your dear voice come alive again?
I have dreamed of you so much that my arms, grown used to being crossed on my
chest as I hugged your shadow, would perhaps not bend to the shape of your body.
For faced with the real form of what has haunted me and governed me for so many
days and years, I would surely become a shadow.
O scales of feeling.
I have dreamed of you so much that surely there is no more time for me to wake up.
I sleep on my feet prey to all the forms of life and love, and you, the only one who
counts for me today, I can no more touch your face and lips than touch the lips and
face of some passerby.
I have dreamed of you so much, have walked so much, talked so much, slept so much
with your phantom, that perhaps the only thing left for me is to become a phantom
among phantoms, a shadow a hundred times more shadow than the shadow the
moves and goes on moving, brightly, over the sundial of your life."
In the poem a man loves and even seems to mourn for the woman he is separated from, finding her only in his dreams, because she has either died or will no longer be equal to what he has dreamt; her real appearance would turn him into a shadow. He has dreamt of her so often he no longer wishes to wake, preferring the dream. He sleeps standing, as if giving the appearance that he is awake, and she is all that matters to him, and yet he can far easier touch a passerby than he can touch her. He has dreamt of her so much and existed so much with her phantom that all that is left is for him to become is a phantom more phantom than the rest, a shadow that becomes more than the shadow that moves and actually touches/reaches her.
This poem can completely encapsulate this theme of Twin Peaks, the essence of it, not only as horror story, but a love story of the most tragic kind, although most would consider it grotesque. For it confesses Billy's love for the woman whom hurt and shaped him, the woman he still loves and can only find in a dream: his mother. We have both Lodges coming full force into view in this latter fragment of the series, and this is of Billy's love, be it wrong or right, healthy of unhealthy.
It mirrors exactly Lynch's own Frank Booth, whom listened to the similarly themed "In Dreams" and most likely thought of his own mother, refusing to let Ben reach the part of the song that reveals the sad truth:
"But just before the dawn
I awake and find you gone
I can't help it
I can't help it
If I cry
I remember that you said goodbye
It's too bad that all these things
Can only happen in my dreams
Only in dreams
In beautiful dreams..."
Frank forces Dorothy to become his mother and live out his dream, yet, deep down, he suspects the truth and one night, finding he has been betrayed, deprives Dorothy of the blue velvet she's become accustomed to, leaving her just as exposed as Cooper without his dark suit. And in this similarity, we can actually see Jeffrey Beaumont AS being just like Frank, furthering Kyle MacLachlan's claim that he saw Cooper as a grown up Beaumont.
For Cooper is Billy and they are all in love with their mother, as abusive as she might have been. However, dreams are the only way they can hold out any hope of being with her again, for she is gone.
Compare "I Have Dreamed of You so Much" and "In Dreams" to "My Prayer" heard twice to startling effect in The Return. The theme is similar, especially in this one line: "My prayer is to linger with you
At the end of the day in a dream that's divine."
David Lynch confessed once he makes a story and then takes away the major parts to turn it into a mystery. We suspect, he did this even more with Twin Peaks, whom's secret/mystery he guarded zealously, especially after it had almost been taken from him without his consent. We also theorize that if something was too close to revealing the secret he would substitute it with something else to preserve it, very much as Billy did. In this case, it is interesting to consider that he saw switching "I Have Dreamed of You so Much" with "Love's Philosophy" which carried through the theme of nature and incest, but without the major clues of it being all about a lovesick man's dream to be near his lover, a dream where he would become a shadow at its season's end.
- As the 3 women/angels, discuss its strangeness, Windom watches them. Now, of note, is how Windom clearly has the best view of Audrey Horne. His focus is on her. Infact, throughout most of his story, it seemed to be hinting that his most likely Queen would infact be Audrey. That was whom it was SUPPOSED to be before MacLachlan interfered. But what is weird is how it still looks like, through actual incidents in the script and visual/audio clues, that it still SHOULD and would have been Audrey.
But this makes no sense when they had just introduced Jack for Audrey and were about to introduce Annie for Dale. But it remains a strong indication. Infact, when Windom meets Audrey in a library (libraries being filled with stories, outside of a library being the place where Lynch took the photo of Teresa wearing the Owl Cave ring, and Ruth Davenport, whom Audrey shared the lamp of, being a librarian) and has her read the poem, he outright comments how she looks very much like a queen.
So it feels forced when Annie is his queen instead.
Unless we realize it was always supposed to be Audrey. To protect her, Billy used the magic trick of substitution (Annie) to protect her and himself, like always. And, once again, it was a trick David Lynch also liked performing, especially when networks, writers and actors forced him to work a bit of magic.
- A shot of the falls leads in to Dale Cooper, playing fisherman on his bed at the Great Northern. He's got a tackle box open on his bed and is fooling around with a fly lure.
First, let's get the juvenile bit out of he way. We can easily make a joke about Dale playing with his fishing pole/rod in his bedroom. It actually won't be the only masturbation reference we can make with Cooper, and we believe that Billy probably did this act a lot himself, being awkward and antisocial.
We can also link this to the fact that Billy Hastings is an avid fisherman. Even more interesting is how it is under fishing equipment in the trunk of his car they find the lump of flesh. This is the car he drove Betty home in afterall. And now, before that, Cooper is shown with his own tackle box. What makes this even more interesting is that it's before the whole Josie incident and wasn't in the script. Fishing - Josie - Betty.
- Another thing to think about is how, after Catherine (who has Dale's number for some reason) phones and tells him that Josie is in Thomas Eckhardt's suite, he goes into his nightstand drawer and gets out his gun.
Why is this so interesting?
Well because, according to the script, Dale was supposed to already have his gun out before the call, and be examining it. Secondly, he always keeps it ON the nightstand, not in the drawer. Lastly, with the Log Lady's intro, and more importantly what's about to happen to Josie, that Dale has to use a drawer pull to get in at the gun hidden there seems incredibly important.
- So Cooper, minus the fishing cap (good idea), goes to Eckhardt's room and overhears some interesting dialogue from Josie and Eckhardt.
This too is changed from the script. It was supposed to be about Harry:
MAN'S VOICE (from inside one of the rooms): Say it, SAY YOU DON'T LOVE HIM!!
Cooper now stands outside the door.
WOMAN'S VOICE: No! Not as long as I live...
MAN'S VOICE: Then you won't.
What Dale hears is this:
JOSIE: Help! Please help.
THOMAS: I love you.
JOSIE: No!
THOMAS: Josie. For God's sake-
JOSIE: Don't touch me. Don't touch me! Don't hurt me.
Once again, we have no indication that Thomas planned on physically hurting or killing Josie. Why was this changed?
What if it was because what Cooper believes he is hearing between Josie and Eckhardt more accurately is what he, as Billy, heard his mother (Audrey) saying to their father (Ben). This is what he overheard through the walls of the motel where they all lived, not the Great Northern but the Red Diamond/Dutchman's?
- When Cooper enters the room, he finds a contrasting scene from what he heard. Josie and Eckhardt are lying in bed together. Suddenly Thomas rises, walks towards Coop and we see he has been wounded. In the script he has a gun, here he doesn't, further dissuading from any notion he was going to kill her. He falls to the floor and we see Josie kneeling on the bed and pointing a gun at Dale.
- Josie seems to be wearing traditional Chinese dress, indicating a return to home for her.
- She claims Eckhardt was going to kill her, which Dale doubts asking if he, Dale, was going to kill her, or Jonathan too. Josie says she shot Jonathan because he was taking her back.
When Dale asks why she shot him, she answers because he came there. She then says she knew that that this day would come and she's not going to jail, she can't.
So once again we come back to the fact that it looks like Eckhardt wasn't going to kill her. So the fear of going/being with Eckhardt was what terrified her. Is this still related to Billy's mother's feelings about being trapped with their father?
Why did Josie shoot Coop? Because he came there? Maybe there still is some link between WHEN Josie shot Coop and what was happening with Audrey and Ben at One-Eyed Jack's? Was Josie some conduit for Billy's mother's feelings, or what he believed she felt? That had he not been conceived, she might have escaped. Josie wore a mask at the time she shot Cooper, just as Audrey wore a mask as Ben cornered her.
This is all still happening at the Great Northern too.
But does her sudden fear of going to jail echo Billy's fear about going to jail for killing American Girl? Can both his mother's fear of being trapped with their father echo her son's fear of going to prison? Does Billy also fear that if he were to be arrested all of his painful secrets, his being the result of his mother's rape by their father, his being abused by her and possibly his dad too, his setting the motel on fire, would be brought to light, something he dreads more than death?
Can this be linked in any way to secrets being kept in drawers?
- Harry rushes in and angrily tells Josie to put the gun down. She's genuinely sorry and apologizes to Harry. She looks like she might turn the gun on herself, but holds it to her chest (like nightstand?) and then gasps for breath and collapses. Harry runs to her, pronounces her dead.
We wonder what killed her until we suddenly see a spotlight light up Dale Cooper and then the Great Northern bed, which is suddenly empty, no Harry, no Josie. A left hand appears on it and then BOB, missing until now, despite there being other deaths/murders appears.
"Coop, what happened to Josie?" he asks and starts maniacally laughing.
Soon he disappears and we see the Arm dancing on the bed.
They disappear, Harry is back holding Josie's body and crying as he repeats her name.
The camera pans across to the nightstand and then we have the infamous shot of Josie being stuck in the drawer pull. She starts off human and turns into wood.
Okay, so...what exactly did happen to Josie?!?
We have BOB being here and the Arm, so under the guise of this theory it somehow involves how Billy views his father living within him and his uncle too. The Arm is still dancing, which can't be connected to Leland now, if it ever was...because maybe it's all still just about Cooper/Billy.
So does this have to do with Billy's mother still, as theorized, or is there another option?
The Log Lady mentioned power plays and Josie being stuck in one, between Andrew and Eckhardt, we presume. Does this echo BOB and MIKE's own power plays? How about their one for Laura or the corn?
But if Coop/Billy killed "Laura" what does that mean?
Cooper was shown to get his gun out from his own nightstand drawer, about the only time he was seen doing so...did HE kill Josie under BOB's influence? Did Billy? Was it for the same reason as Laura/American Girl or to save his secrets like with Betty?
There seems to be an indication that Josie is connected somehow to The Great Northern. The original series finale was supposed to show her body hanging in the Red Room. Was this a clear hint that it and the Great Northern were connected, just as the Northern was also linked to the Convenience Store and the Dutchman's? Did Lynch scrap it because it also gave too much away?
Did Josie know about Billy's past connection to the Dutchman?
Does this still connect to Betty in any way, all those years later? Is Betty, one of the many Judys still Josie's sister?
Who was Josie? A mother substitute, someone Billy was attracted to? Remember Dale showed an instant attraction to Josie. Someone who found out too much and was killed for it? Did she kill herself? Did fear really kill her, why we'll find out in the next episode she weighed like 65 pounds? BOB or the Arm obviously consumed her. Did Billy threaten her?
The truth is, we feel like there is an answer here but we're not hitting it exactly. There are clear cut ties to Billy's mom and ties to also Billy himself and to Betty...but what's it really mean? We've already discussed this episode for long enough...we might have to try to open this drawer some other night.
